Slashdot Mirror
Wii Now Confirmed to Not be Region-Free
legoburner writes "Contrary to an earlier Slashdot story, Nintendo have now stated that the Wii will not be region free. The original claim came from Nintendo America, but Nintendo UK have gone on record denying the claims. They put it rather bluntly, stating: 'We are region-locked,' and that Nintendo America made a mistake by claiming otherwise."
No one is certain..
Title: Wii Now Confirmed to Not be Region-Free
Next line: Nintendo have now stated that the Wii will not be region free.
Bit lower: They put it rather bluntly, stating: 'We are region-locked,' and that Nintendo America made a mistake by claiming otherwise.
Whos right?
liqbase
Found my quote. Had to watch a 20 minute video to get it.
Robert Summa of Destructoid asked Perrin Kaplan, "Is everything region free." Kaplan replied, "Yes. Yeah. Which is a good thing. I've actually had several people ask that of me today."
Here's the video. The quote is near the end. The quote is about 18 minutes in.
the cosmos in 20 words or less: thumbuki.com
Nintendo US and Nintendo Japan had their events, completely forgetting about Europe with Europe being something console manufacturers apparently don't care that much about with the increased prices and the fact they're always last for console and game releases. Nintendo US and Japan rejoice in the fact that the Wii is in fact probably region free between those countries and mention this publicly. Then someone remembers Europe, Europe no doubt being the centre of shaftdom, a place where companies can screw consumers to the Nth degree without fear of reprisals and brings up the fact that Europe can't in fact use games from Japan or the US because they intend to charge more in Europe to rip customers off and hence they have to correct their mistake that whilst Japan and the US can enjoy game swapping, Europe can't. Okay, now back to reality somewhat I realise that's a totally cynical view and I'm probably off mark but on the same note it is getting kind of tiresome in Europe that we're treated so much worse in terms of releases of games and gaming equipment. The US version of the Wii is going to cost £133, whereas the European version will cost £179. I certainly realise we suffer taxes much more here and I realise with our strong currencies it costs a little more to distribute it here, however I fail to beleive that those two factors add up to a 25% price increase for Europe - some of it HAS to be greed on the manufacturers part, plain and simple. Also, the fact we get it later also adds insult to injury. So whilst my original point had a strong hint of over the top cynicism, I can't help but feel that it might have some slight truth to it that the reason the Wii is region locked - whether for Europe only or all 3 regions that it's again because of sheer greed by Nintendo. I really want a Wii, but when someone's trying to screw me I do feel very tempted to just not bother, not give them my money and buy something else instead. One final note, I do realise Nintendo aren't the only ones guilty of this, I guess I just hoped that Nintendo weren't going to screw Europe like Microsoft did and Sony will... I hoped they were better than that, oh well :/
Well the current VAT less price in the US for the shovelware bundle, is around 178 Euros, but over here they charge 250 Euros for the same even if you count in 17% VAT average which really is average for europe. You are around 208 Euros, I assume the import taxes are pretty much the same here as in the US so I will leave that out and do not compare it to the japanese price which is way lower (no shovelware bundle to justify the higher price) We have a 16% price difference which goes straight into Nintendos pockets thanks to SCAMMING their own customer base over a self assumed price parity of 1 USD is one Euro...! The rest I can say is get your calc out and do the math yourself...
NoE loves annoying the hell out of their customers and generally try to make us realize we're much better off with a PC. Wouldn't surprise me if NoA made everything region free but NoE added a lock so Europeans can't use those region free games.
Maybe I should respect their wish and not buy a Wii, then.
Justice is the sheep getting arrested while an impartial judge declares the vote void.